2005 -- Wrestling was COOL!

I'm off work this week, three unpaid days due to the state of California not having enough money to pay public employees, and two holidays. So, I'll be posting reports of all my awesome wrestling escapades this year...including meeting Chris Jericho for the first time, Wrestlemania 21, and meeting Batista for the first time. Kind of an interesting sandwich...meeting Jericho on the day we set our clocks ahead that year, and meeting Batista on the day we set them back. ^^

Anyway, the year started with my first "indy" show in February, UPW Homecoming Havoc. Awesome for two reaons: SEAN O'HAIRE AND CHUCK PALUMBO! Wow. Here are the small notes I wrote for this show...

02.23.05

We had a great time...but sadly no opportunity to molest either O'Haire or Palumbo, and they lost their match. It was a good match though...

After the show we went to hang around to meet the UPW stars. We met Shawn Riddik (hello! hottie!), Lionheart (who was so cool he asked us what our names were!), Lil Nate (new champ)...and oggled Ma'koa (who I swear looked right at me from the ring and pointed!).

Then...we saw Daniel Puder milling around...so we went over, waited for him to finish up talking to some people, stuck our hands in his face and said "Nice to meet you." What a cool guy he is! Dis told him I voted for him in the T.E. thing, and he genuinely looked pleased, so I say "Yeah, I voted several times..." and he responds "SEVEN TIMES???? WOW!" *giggle* He talked to us for like 5 minutes, about UFC and OVW, and how much he likes OVW and Cornette, and Lance Storm, and Al Snow (who is like a 2nd father to him).

After that we went to sit down, saw Tom Howard up on the stairs. There was this drunken female fan there who we ended up chatting with. Dis saw her hand something to O'Haire at the end of the match (when I was watching Palumbo be pinned by Howard) and he stuck it down the front of his trunks. This girl was so odd, she said she doesn't have a name, she's just "Super Fan"...

Well...all of a sudden I look up...and there he is. *swoon* I'd told Dis I would not approach him, but I saw him and was out of my seat in a flash. We high-tailed it over, but he was already gone. Turns out he just came out to return Super Fan's enveloppe, which had contained a picture of him and he autographed it and returned it to her.

He's so beautiful handsome up close.

--Other notes of interest were drunken Tank Abbot who had to be bodily removed.

--Me sitting in VIP seats and being thrown out by female-security-guard-from-hell....and as we left she said "Good night" to us in a cheerful voice.

--Watching Howard hoist Palumbo up over his head, CLEARLY grab his balls, the guys behind me in VIP seats saying "He tweaked his balls!" and me saying out loud, "Yeah he did!"

--Jesus Aguilera...the guy is good, but what a male chauvinist pig! Of course, the crowd was 80% men...so go figure.

--Out in the smoking area after dinner and talking to 2 random guy wrestling fans...they're talking about "cool" things, and one of them said "Did you see what Batista did to HHH?" I marked...random guy wrestling fans think Batista is cool!

--Frankie Kazarian getting a really nice ovation from the crowd to congratulate him for his WWE contract. He had an awesome match where he lost the UPW LH title to Lil Nate.

And that's all for now. We have shelves to build and stuff. I took a TON of pictures...hopefully I can get them up this afternoon.

Eddie Guerrero Five Years Later

These are some thoughts I blogged about in 2005...

11/14

I can not believe how insensitive people are. Really.

I'll be the first one to say that Eddie Guerrero wasn't my favorite wrestler,  so I hope it doesn't look like I'm jumping on a bandwagon, or pretending to be something I'm not. I admired Eddie, and I enjoyed watching him very much...even when he wasn't in a storyline with Batista.

So...today several people at work came up to me to see if I knew about that "wrestler who died." Right off the bat I felt that was insensitive to approach me that way. The people who asked are people who know my penchant for pro-wrestling...and they like to make fun of me about it. They chose to use this as another angle for making fun of me.

People are like dogs. You know the FarSide cartoon "What we say to dogs" and "What dogs hear?" All they heard in the reports was that he'd had problems with drug use...and so all I heard all day was that he must have died of an overdose, or that steroids had enlarged his heart and thus he died because of that. It became unnerving after a while.

One person had the good grace to come up to me later and apologize for being insenstive, but by then it was too late and the damage had been done.

There are kind and caring people in the world too though. My husband for example. He doesn't watch wrestling, doesn't like it...but when I finally mentioned it to him in the afternoon he was very sympathetic. Even remembered that he'd just seen him on Friday night when he came in to watch it with me for a few moments. And my friend Alan, who called from Phoenix last night simply to offer his sympathy.

11/15

Walking down the hall to get my kids this morning, and another teacher is calling me from the other end of the hallway, "Did you hear about that wrestler who died?" I brace myself, but she was genuinely concerned, so that was good. I dreaded going to the teacher lunchroom at recess because I didn't want a repeat of yesterday.

Totally different today. The cafeteria manager is a big wrestling fan. In fact, he went to 'Mania, and that's how we discovered we shared this love. I almost talked to him about it yesterday, but I held back for some reason. Today I found out that he didn't know. He found out last night when his family watched Raw.

Eddie *was* his favorite wrestler, I got teary-eyed all over again talking to him. He shared his memory of meeting Eddie in person in April, he was as excited as I was when I met Batista. He said he broke down in tears watching Raw last night...particularly mentioned how Benoit's promo broke him up. He spoke very passionately, as a staunch member of Eddie's huge Latino fanbase here in Southern California...I shivered listening to him give Eddie such glowing credit. He threw it all back in the faces of the teachers who were so rude yesterday.

I was outside taking some garbage out, and I looked up at the sky. It's a full moon, and there's been some beautiful coronas around it for the past 2 nights. Tonight, it's a big sweeping corona, like a huge lasso. Inside of the corona with the moon was a planet. Venus maybe? I'm not sure which planet, but it glows brighter than a star. I went out front to look at it, it was so touching.

Later, I went out to look again...and the planet was outside the lasso. And I had the clear thought in my head ... we had to let him go.

And then the cafeteria lady gave me a little carrot cake, for free. I was so touched I cried. She even warmed it up for me.

My Third Live WWE show...and FOZZY!

August 23, 2004

Warning: This post contains me talking about Chris Benoit in a favorable manner. I still have mixed feelings about Benoit, but I know that I felt good about him in 2004 when I saw this show, so there's no way I would take it out. But, just letting you know in case you don't like him.

This also contains the only Fozzy show I've ever seen live.
Last time I went to Raw live I condensed it down to four words...."Batista saw my sign"....this time I can also condense it down to four words...

I touched Chris Jericho!!!

Of course...that was at the Fozzy gig...but still....I TOUCHED HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Won't bore you wit a super long rant (I don't think, but who knows once I get started)...we got there and scoped out the BEST parking spots (IE: right in front of an exit! LOL!). Got to our seats right as Heat was starting. The first match was cool because I love Rodney Mack! He has a new tattoo too....and on top of that, he and Jazz are soooo cute together.

After that.....CHUCK PALUMBO!!!!!!!!!!! Dude...it was so fucking cool to see him in person. He also won, he was up against a jobber.

Then...holy cow. If anyone had told me 4 years ago when I first started watching wrestling that I'd ever be gaga over Chris Benoit, I'd have thought they were lying. CHRIS BENOIT! Dear lord....he's THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He had a match against Tyson Tomko (who is beginning to really improve. I kind of marked to see him and Trish too)...but Benoit TOOK HIM TO SCHOOL!!! It was fucking amazing. If you like Benoit, you have GOT to tape this match....Tomko took NINE suplexes...six of them in a row. It was a beautiful match. And what was even better was the people yelling for Benoit. Several chants went up, several people with signs that said he's still *our* champ...he got such an ovation I had goose bumps. Truly well deserved, and they let him stay in the ring a long time after soaking it up. He's just great. I'm converted.

Plus...I have another reason, but I'll get to that in a moment.

Once the show started, we had an annoying woman a few rows down from us with a HUGE set of signs who had no concept of anything. She kept the friggin' things up no matter what, even when there was no chance of being on camera, and DURING THE MATCHES! It really sucked, because for part of the time my friend couldn't see shit...including when Batista was in the ring and I was in danger of passin out over the railing. LOL!

Our seats were better than I thought they were going to be, but not really good enough to take pictures. I took the digital camera...but I doubt the pictures turned out. I'll see about uploading them later.

I knew The Rock would be there...and sadly...he's changed. He still got a huge pop, I still popped for him...I think people realized he'd be there. Three times in a row at the Pond and he's shown up. But...his bit with the Divas was...ugh. I didn't like it. I laughed, and hooted, but after when I realized just what he'd said I was kind of bleh about it. So..that was pretty much a waste.

Chris Jericho's match with Edge was off the charts. Seriously...it was a fantastic match. It was so fun to watch it live...I can't wait to see it on TV though because...dude. Jericho is the man. He's just so exciting to watch. The Rock may have been the reason I ever watched wrestling in the first place, Jeff Hardy may have been the reason I became hooked...but Jericho is the reason I've held my interest...and this match was an example of why. Really cool...and as my friend said, even though Edge sucked the heat out of the building (people really hated him) Jericho brought it all back.

Fortunately, at this point Method Man decided he needed a beer. LOL! He ran RIGHT UP OUR AISLE....not that it meant anything to me because I didn't even know who he was...but it cleared our aisle out. They all went to follow him to the concession stand.

Then..of course Evolution came out.  Dude...even as far away as we were, Batista is huge. I am not ashamed to say I stood there SCREAMING like a girl. Seriously. Screaming. He's...so massive. That was pretty cool...and it amused me that Orton ran right up by the section where I sat last time.

Ok...this is the other thing about Benoit....it would be so awesome if he and Batista feuded. Seriously....Batista said before that match where he was supposed to beat Benoit down to soften him up for HHH that Benoit told him, "If you don't kick my ass I'll be mad"....they work so well together. They're so brutal with each other...it would be so totally awesome. *crosses fingers*


Victoria was backstage. *squee*

Afterwards, when my friend said, "We got to see Flair and Regal..." I said "I didn't see that!" Of course, because, during that entire match I had my eyes glued to Batista. We didn't get the audio on the matches...and I thought that was going to be a tag match. I was disappointed that it wasn't. And then I was disappointed that it was Batista and Dinsmore on the outside. I so love to watch those OVW guys mix it up. But I will say this...Batista was amazing with the crowd. At one point, he kept turning around and talking to them, gesturing to them, SMILING at them....it was so cool. He's so beautiful.

The wedding [Lita and Kane] was....well, to quote the crowd. Boring. We were seated behind the "pastor"...my only comment aside from a random squee over Matt Hardy, is that before the stage exploded in flames you could clearly see the little flames popping up...so I expected the explosion. Anyway...the "what" chant to Bischoff reading the Bible was .... well was odd as The Rock accusing Lillian Garcia of drinking on the job.

So..the show ended, we got out to the car, found the House of Blues (which was an adventure in and of itself)...and you have to walk through Downtown Disneyland to get there. What's up with that? DisneyLAND for god's sake. With all its wackiness and shit...I was weirded out, and I've been to Disneyland before.

HOB is strict, I couldn't bring the camera, which sucked ass, so I opted to carry it back to the car instead of checking it. My friend's brother went into the bar...and dude. He ended up sitting with Victoria, Nidia, and Sylvian Grenier...got their autographs and everything. Funny part was, we walked right past them when we finally came it...and didn't see them. LOL!

We were able to get right up by the stage. At first there were only 2 people in front of us, but by the end there was only 1. The stage is set so that when he came out, we were eye-level with his ankles...but he was close enough to touch.

Fozzy was just amazing. I know I can't give the show justice by just telling you about it. Chris is a really outstanding performer, and a gigantic goofball. He said getting hit in the nuts made him sing high. LOL!

When he came out he sprayed water over all of us...that was cool. He kept getting right on the edge of the stage so he was right above us. I made eye contact with him a few times. He's beautiful up that close. He says Happenstance is good for "pooping on"....

The very best part of the show was (and Peter chided me because I can't remember which song the were doing, maybe "With the Fire"...I'm not sure, it was one of their originals though) when he came out into the crowd. He had people sing along with him, he put the mic right in a few people's faces...but it was the middle of this song, he runs over to the side, jumps down into the crowd, gets right up by the stage...maybe 5 feet away from me and starts head-banging.

That's when I touched him. I put my hand right on his back...up by the shoulder, and left it there for awhile. I even massaged it a little. Dude...I touched Chris Jericho's back. The part of his body that enthralls me the most...well...it's tied with his arms, but I was not close enough to touch both, so I settled for his back.

Later, I touched his shoe.

They played my favorite Fozzy song..."End of Days"...that rocked. They played "Feel the Burn"...I like that one too. Of course they played "Eat the Rich" and "To Kill a Stranger" and "With the Fire"....and some of the other cover songs. I had meant to research the lyrics for "TNT"...but I forgot to. Instead of having a girl from the crowd come up and sing with him though...he had Lillian Garcia.

Lillian Garcia is stunningly beautiful. She was close enough to touch too...and she kicked ass. They were cute together. He said we'd have to tell her the words, and she said "I know the words!" She did too...

He played from about 9:45 until like 11:10 or so. That's the nice part about the West Coast.

When we got ready to leave, my friend's brother bumped into Victoria again, and again we weren't with him. We sat out front for about 45 minutes, and he bumped into her AGAIN! LOL! We waved and said "goodnight"...but she wasn't sticking around to talk this time. Nidia and Grenier were with her too.

And that's it. I have had 4 hours of sleep because I got to bed about 12:30...was too keyed up to sleep until after 1:30...woke up at 5:30 because I had to get up at 6...and now I'm ready to keel over.

Chris Jericho.

Never Forget

On September 11, 2001 I woke up in a panic. It was street sweeping day, and around here you have to move your car from one side of the street to the other or face getting a ticket. I woke up at around 5:30 AM (PST) hearing the street sweeper off in the distance. Usually once you can hear it it's too late to do anything about it, but I woke up in a panic because I realized I had forgotton to move my car.

I leapt out of bed in my pjs, and realized I didn't have my glasses. In a series of unfortunate events I'd left them at school the day before. I found my keys and raced outside and into my car. Of course, it wouldn't start. Besides that I couldn't see anything without my glasses. I finally got it to start and took off before the sweeper got to me, but I ended up getting a ticket anyway, and had to drive all the way down the block, in the semi-dark, without my glasses.

I never listen to the news in the morning. I don't want the TV intruding on my waking up period, and I hate listening to the radio in my car. It wasn't until I got to work about 2 hours later that I knew anything had happened, but I was able to piece together that the first plane hit around the time I was gripped in panic over the street sweeper.

To this day the sound of the street sweeper wraps me in panic. In fact this past Tuesday I woke up to hear it and I repeated over and over in my head "It's not 9/11, it's not 9/11, it's not 9/11...." until well after the sweeper had passed us by.

I will never forget that day...

My second WWE autograph signing event : RVD

August 21, 2003

This time we left the house at 4:30. As with the last time, all the way there I was thinking of chickening out, but this time Peter was with me.

Well...I could see right away that this time things were going to be different. For one thing, the line was all the way out the door and halfway down to Robinson's May. Aiyee! I tried to convince Peter to go stand in line while I got the tickets, but of course he opted to come with me.

This time they were a LOT more organized. They had signs posted with prices and price tags ON everything. The 8x10s around the top of the store....$9.50. Dude...I'm so going back there to buy the Batista one. *___*

So, I ordered 2 RVD Specials! LOL!! That meant, an autographed 8x10 and a polaroid. On the ticket, you had to put in your name and address (if you want to be notified of future signings...because DUDE!!! He plans to have them once a month! KICK ASS!!!) Then, we went out to get in line.

Blargh! We were standing right in the sun and it was hot and muggy. But at least this time the people around me were WAY cooler than the last time. This man started talking me up right away....we talked about everything from wrestling to marriage. It was funny. Peter was bored beyond belief....I have to give him major props for going with me and putting up with the whole thing. The man told me that he'd gotten there at 3pm, and the line was already at the door.

Now, this didn't really surprise me, but he got there late.  Dude...he lives RIGHT THERE...but he didn't show up until 6:15. I swear, his arrival was surrealistic. I had my sunglasses on (because we'd already been standing there IN THE SUN for an hour and 15 minutes at that point) and sometimes when I look at things through my sunglasses it's like not real or something. Anyway...he was wearing shorts (I thought they were plaid, but I guess either they weren't or he changed inside...now I just can't remember) The thing I DO remember is he had on WHITE SOCKS  and CLOGS!!! I marked so much for that. I mean, seriously....I loved him immensely in that moment. White socks and clogs. And...he was carrying his ECW TV Title belt. Walking behind him was a woman...his wife maybe? She was pretty...and small...and she was carrying a video camera...filming his triumphant arrival.

When Booker arrived, he walked in from the parking lot and got right down to business. RVD made his way along the whole length of the line...wearing sunglasses...he looked so hot. Waving, high-fiving....milking it for all it was worth. Very cool.

Ok...then the real wait was on. Dear GOD....I thought I'd die. I'm not kidding. We made it to the door at 7:30. At this point it becomes clear to me....NO SMACKDOWN FOR YOU TONIGHT!

Well...the man (see...he was probably almost 60...but he was really cool and I liked him) and I continued to make small talk. There was a passel of kids in front of us, eventually I chatted them up too. They were cute. There were some macho dudes behind us who wouldn't talk to me. Feh...whatever.

Along about 8, we were only halfway up to the corner. *sigh* And I start talking to the kids again. At this point, they say to me, "Who do you want to win in the Elimination Chamber"...so I say "JERICHO"...and they laugh. For some reason that broke the ice with the macho dudes behind me...and they start talking to me too. We start exchanging stories about "who's autograph do you have?" and dear god....One of them told me he ran into RVD at a sandwich shop in San Pedro. He said he was really cool! He finally admitted....he wanted Jericho to win on Sunday too. They were very impressed with the fact that I have Sean O'Haire's autograph....I think they were WCW fans. They said they had Goldberg and Sting...they got them at the Wherehouse right across the street from the mall back in WCW days. I felt special that I have Sean's autograph.

Somewhere along the line, we found out that the people in the front of the line....had been there since SEVEN AM! That's nuts!

When they finally let us over to the primo spot in front of the store it was about 8:45. The tension mounted. The same really cool guy was there from the last time. That guy deserves a prize. He's just so RVDish it's not funny.

Then we were inside the store!!!!!

They gave us a choice of pictures. WWE promo shots of RVD...and older ECW shots. For some reason, Peter chose a black and white of RVD and Bill Alonso (or whatever his name is...that's the guy with the whistle, right?) and I got the one with Sabu and Bill Alonso. Hee!!!

Ok..RVD is cool. Really cool. He was so beautiful up close. I can't explain it, but he was just beautiful. Melty beautiful.

There was this HUGE guy standing there...and they asked for our tickets. I handed over our "RVD Special" tickets..and they said "Stand there....against the counter." o.O Sure...no problem. So I swear, I'm RIGHT behind this guy...he's like HUGE....and he's totally dressed in black....black suit, black shirt, black tie...black GLOVES!!!!...dark glasses...and he's bald. He was frightening. And he was touching me!!!! EEK!!!!

So..then, it's our turn. I made Peter go first. RVD was so cool to him...he called him "dude"....HEE! He took his picture, and the made out the autograph to Peter. Then it was my turn.

Ok...I'm and idiot. We all know that. I hand over my 8x10 and he says, "Who do I make this out to?" So...I say, "Well, it's not for me, so make it out to Shanny." Then...I spelled it for him.  So then...I kid you not, I bend closer so our heads are nearly touching, and say to him in a low voice, "The polaroid is for me." He chuckled, and for a moment it sounded naughty.

Well, it's my turn to get my picture, and I walk over. And I have to say right now I was not nearly as nervous as I was with Booker. I found that odd because I like RVD much more than Booker...but it felt ...I don't know natural in a way for some reason. So he says, "You gotta hold the ECW TV title belt"....And I don't know exactly what I said, but then he says, "Put it over your arm, like this"....Apparently at that point there was some sort of a reaction from me. Probably a squeak or something.

I look up, and the girl with the camera says, "Were you here last month for Booker T? You were weren't you."

*thud*

I said, "Yeah...I had the reaction to the belt."

She says, "Yeah, I remember."

So...and this really killed me the most of the entire experience...he looks up and says, "What was that?"

*dies*

Somehow between she and I we explained about me and the IC belt.

Ok...so here's me with the belt slung over my shoulder (for the record, it's not as heavy as the IC belt) and he did the full on R--V--D pose (with Peter, he didn't get to put the belt over his shoulder, and he only did half the RVD pose)...and I looked relatively decent in the picture. Not like a total geek.

You know...it was such a cool experience. I didn't even really notice that 4 hours had gone by.

Anyway....as for ring-used mdse...they had a raffle for a Booker T glove, but I didn't enter it. They had belt replicas...and they had autographed pictures for sale. This made no sense....Matt Hardy was $29.95....Jeff Hardy was $39.95...and Trish Stratus was $49.95! o.O

Then of course, Rey Misterio next month...and someone else the next month, but the man in the line couldn't remember who it was.

My first live WWE autograph signing

July 22, 2003

Booker T...back in the days when Rob Van Dam was still with WWE and he opened a comic book shop in a mall near my house. This wasn't the official grand opening, it was about a month before. I had no idea what to expect, and what it was turned out to be far better than I imagined.




I left the house at 4:45 and all the way there I kept saying, "Maybe I'll just go back home." It's not that I'm paranoid about crowds, I'm just not fond of them. Besides that, I was by myself. I kept thinking I'd be better off if I had someone with me, but there was no one. Peter had Scouts, so I couldn't even drag him along. Honestly, the reason I didn't turn back for home is that I knew Shanny was counting on me to go. So...it's all her fault. *grin*

When I got to the mall there was tons of parking, so I thought "Well, maybe it won't be that bad." I knew sort of where the store was, and it turned out I parked in the right place because as I walked in the mall there was a pretty long line already formed. Once again I almost turned around and went home, but I perservered.

I found the store, and it was OPEN!!! People inside!!! So I walked right in!

It's a small store, and it is 2 doors down from the entrance to the mall, and about 10 stores from the Target (which isn't open yet). I have a feeling they don't have everything up in the store yet, but the grand opening isn't until August. One thing I noticed right away was that it as HOT in there, like the a/c wasn't working.

 In the window was a huge canvas banner with RVD's face on it and the notice that he'd be there on August 21 at 6 for autographs. When you walk in the door, to the right is a long wall with racks filled with all kinds of comic books. I didn't look at all of them, but they had all kinds, a lot of them in plastic sleeves. I noticed this because the only other comic store I've been to has all the comics in bins, but this was neat because you could see them all at a glance. To the left was a counter area...most of the left half of the store is glassed in counters, and the clerks standing behind. In the counters are all sorts of cool collectibles. I couldn't see all of it because people were clustered around them. Behind the counters on the wall are shelves with WWE stuff, and racks with pictures. There were a lot of RVD autographed pictures, and I don't know if they were for sale, but they were cool. They were from his entire career. In the back of the store were racks, attached to the wall, with t-shirts and WWE action figures...oh and Kiss action figuress too! All around the top of the store there were framed promotional pics. I saw BATISTA (there were 2 of him), Randy Orton, Billy Kidman...and a really COOL one of RVD with Sabu. I'm going to ask when I go back if those are for sale...and I'm so buying you the RVD/Sabu one. It was an interesting collection, because it didn't seem like he had everyone...I wondered if the ones he had were the people he likes/admires.

The people who worked there were WAY cool! They were all so friendly and nice! All were wearing RVD t-shirts and they were a cross seciton of what looked like stoner dudes (and dudettes) and hardcore comic guys. I talked to this one guy who might have been a manager (he was sitting at the table with Booker later). He was tall, and had wild blonde hair. Very pleasant.

So...I stood behind this lady and her son and listened to her asking about the autographs. Dude...they were so confused! This cool dude told us to go down to the end of the counter and pay. We went down and the kids working there didn't really give us the straight story. They said polaroids were $15, and if you wanted an autograph it was $15 and you could give him anything to sign. I said I didn't have anything with me. They said I could buy a picture (of course). Anyway...I ended up forking over $25, got 2 tickets, and was on my way.

The line had gotten a bit longer, but it still wasn't bad.

The lady and her son that had been in the store asking the questions were at the end of the line, and this larger rather geeky man (wearing a WWF Las Vegas Casino t-shirt) was behind them. It was about 5:15 at this point. Eventually everyone bunched up, and I realized we weren't too far back in the line, and a lot of people got behind us.

I ended up befriending the lady and her son (who was the age of my students, and a very bright boy) and the geek-man. Geek man thought he knew everything...I set him straight a few times (IE: he said Billy and Torrie were getting married this coming Friday, I told him they were already married). He was kind of interesting in some ways, but way off the mark about other things. He had gone to Raw the previous night, and he was giving me the low-down on HBK and Jericho's match. He said they were pretty wiped out after. The cool part was that he'd also gone to the FYE thing in the morning. Booker, Hurricaine, Ivory, and HBK signed those posters down in Santa Ana. Geek-man got there right as it was over, and they gave him a hard time...but he ended up getting all their signatures on his Raw ticket stub. He showed it to me. *g*

He said he talked to HBK and asked him about the match...HBK said, "It went on a *little* too long"....*swoon*

At 6....Booker arrived...walked right past us!

There were some guys in front of us who were kind of jack-asses. They kept doing wrestling moves on each other, and I gathered from what I heard them saying they were either going to wrestling school (maybe UPW) or were just really avid fans. The finesse of their moves made me think they might actually be in school. They were dorky too...(although one of them was HOT!) and they were lapping up everything geek-man said (even though by this point geek-man had lapsed into half-truths). This amused me, they asked him what HBK was wearing this morning o.O. I thought maybe they had a crush on him or something. (maroon t-shirt, short-sleeved plaid shirt, and green cargo-shorts.)

The crowd was so mellow and cool. There were a ton of sherriffs, plain-clothes police detectives and mall security watching us. The lady with the kid said that there had been a near-riot at the Raiders store a few months ago when some of the Raiders came to sign things. I will say this....we wrestling fans are cool...no sign of a riot at all.

We finally got up to the front of the line, and then we got inside the store! It seemed like the a/c was on now.

Booker was so cool. Really. There was a group in front of us with like 5 kids that were going to get in the polaroid picture. He reached down and picked up the littlest girl and he looked so natural holding her. He had nice things to say to all of them. Then the lady with the kid went up there, and he was so cool to the kid. The kid did a spinarooni and Book applauded him. I melted.

Then it was my turn. *squee*

His voice was all gravelly and he said "How you doin'?" I think I said "fine"....

Then he asked if I wanted to hold the belt...and my eyes got big...and the cool girl with the camera (who gave me a genuine smile, that was so cool) remarked on it. He laughed and handed me the belt!

K...I kind of spaced out for a moment then....gripping the belt so tightly....vibes of the previous IC champs racing through me.

Then he put his arm around me and I snapped back into focus. As the girl snapped the picture I thought "Oh dear god I look like an idiot!"

After that he signed the polaroid AND and 8x10. I figured out at that point I could have paid $15 for just the polaroid and he'd have autographed that. Oh well, it was cool to get the 8x10 too. He wasn't making personal autographs...it just says "Booker T 5x" on it...but that's cool. I think I said thank you...I don't even remember!

I left then...and walked out front. There were several apparently rabid fans loitering out front....I guess waiting until it was over..maybe to see if RVD came out. I know he was there...but I never saw him. I decided not to hang around...his fans were kind of scary looking.


Oh..but when I got home Spyder went nuts! He kept sniffing my shoulder where Booker's hand had been. I guess Book smelled good! LOL!

My second WWE Live Event

December 8, 2003

Holy cow! I was way too wired to sleep last night, stayed up until midnight...and then I only slept until 5 because I woke up jazzed again.

I know that Raw probably turned out to be boring for a lot of people...but my priorities would have dictated that *I* enjoyed it whether I was there live or not...and I have to say that being there live just made it all that much better....I ENJOYED EVERY MATCH EVEN THE BORING ONES!!! So without further ado....

I didn't end up leaving the house until about 10 minutes to four because we were trying to figure out how to make the VCR in the bedroom work with the digital cable. AND YAHOO IT WORKED!!!! So huge thanks to the people who taped it for me....my tape seems to have worked...

Ok...so it took me an hour to get there, which I expected with the traffic and all. Parked, walked all the way down to the gate...and was turned away! Aiyee!!!! Turns out my "lens was too long" (and I was just happy to see them! LOL!) So, I had to go all the way back to the car and switch to the regular lens. Got in, shelled out $10 for a Batista-less program (only to find a smaller copy of it in the mail today inside my Raw magazine), and got to my seats.

Dude....KILLER seats!....sitting up that high was lots better than sitting on the floor. I had a dead-on view of the ring...directly across from the cameras! Of course, as I told Dave, I was in the "unwashed teenage boy row" which made me feel right at home. The first time these guys raised up their arms I nearly passed out.

So...this was my first Raw....and of course I was fascinated by the whole thing. Watching Finkel in the ring, watching the people around the ring, etc. I really gained an insight into what it must be like for these guys just starting out, because the crowd was so DEAD for the dark match, and most of the Heat matches. It's really frustrating when people like Heidenrich get TV time, and people like Nick Dinsmore are booed for their superior technical ability. Yeah, I'm biased toward Dinsmore...I admit it. He was in the dark match, btw...and he's let his hair grow really long....and get this....HE'S FROM ANAHEIM! That made me actually laugh out loud. Apparently he's the one who is from every home town because he goes over in the matches. Heh. I even allowed myself to get into the match enough that I cheered a killer move he made....which made the boys look at me like I'd grown a 2nd head.

It's really too bad we don't get to see the Heat matches they taped. I can't remember the order, but there were 4 matches after Dinsmore. Matt Hardy... He's awesome. He was against Maven (and of course I can't stand Maven). There was a Stevie Richards match with some guy who actually used a magic carpet as a prop [Sean Diavari]. It was a good match, I like Stevie. Heidenrich was against some guy that looked like Kidman, but of course it wasn't Kidman. The best match of the group though was definitely Rico vs Dreamer. My god....that had me rolling. (again drawing the pained looks from the guys) Dreamer pranced around, smacked Rico's ass....mimicked him and it was so fucking funny. Rico is an awesome technician. It's really too bad they have him in that stupid gimmick.

Then Lillian Garcia came out. Christ...she's beautiful. Her hair made me weep....she has pink streaks in it now..so beautiful. And here is where I admit to being a complete DORK....I cried when she sang the National Anthem. It was such a heart warming...BEAUTIFUL rendition I wiped a tear away when she was done. Man...she can really sing.

Ok...so part of Raw is a blur to me....although I'm happy to say it totally ROCKED seeing the parts that weren't televised. Jericho/Christan vs Dudleys for example. And the furious sweeping of the explosion of rose petals out of the ring.

*WARNING* This is where I turn into a giant Jericho mark...

Chris Jericho is so beautiful he made me weak. Wow. Of course, I've seen him live before, and I was closer to him the last time, but this was totally different. Him in the ring with the pink/purple tights, his hair down...and so shiny literally killed me. But add in the voice....the wheedling "I'm sorry" voice and I was breathless. And when Trish slapped him I think I shrieked. The match was beautiful too...and him laying on the apron all pink and sweaty just was overwhelming. I snapped a picture of the Lionsault, but he did it so fast I didn't get it just right...but still. God...it was just beautiful. Trish really hit him with her face too...I heard the thump *dead* He is such a beautiful man....*swoon* While I was snapping an endless string of pictures of him the guy next to me said, "He's bleeding"....o.O I saw on the replay...he was!

/gushing part one.

Of course, my boys (students) derided me for saying Chris Jericho is beautiful.

Match two....let's kill Carol early so she'll be worthless for the rest of the show. *____*

I love Batista....not a secret is it? I totally marked for this match on a number of different levels. I won't bore you with all my private gushing, I'll save that for later...suffice to say that I got great pictures of the Demon Bomb....which I think I heard JR call the Batista Bomb....The crowd wasn't into Batista, especially the boys in my row. They called him a Brock Lesnar wannabe ("He even has Lesnar's tattoo") and some other stupid things.

At this point, the boy sitting next to me tried to read my sign...it was really amusing. First he leaned all the way forward to try to see it, then he leaned back to try to read it from behind...then he gave up and asked me if I had a pen. LOL! I was like Dude...do I look like I have a pen? But of course, I did have a Sharpie stuffed in my back pocket, so I gave it to him, and his friend proceeded to use it to draw a Mr. Socko....on one of the socks he had been wearing no less. *gag* Like an idiot I took the pen back when they were done. LOL!

So...the biggest things live were....BOOKER'S PYRO KICKS ASS MAN! Kane's promo gave me the shivers...that was so well done! Victoria was so shiny and beautiful! Jericho and Christian on the ramp for that match had me totally distracted...the match with Steiner in it was GREAT! I'm serious...you should have heard the crowd heckling him...and he was all hot about it too. It was fun to watch. The King pointing up...I couldn't hear what he was saying because the audio wasn't working at that point, but I was like...what on earth is he pointing at the corner of the building for? Literally...where he was pointing, there was nothing there. When I found out what he was pointing at....LOL!

Obviously...The Rock showing up brought down the house. I was really in to Conway and Dupre dissing Foley, that was very cool...but when that "If you smell...." hit the place literally erupted. I swear....it was a far bigger pop than the last time when I went to the house show and he showed up unexpectedly. Christ on a crutch. Not only did we pop like mad...but we were on our feet for the entire segment. Wow....totally amazing. The strudel thing killed me....and the "Wait....what did you just say? You meant the ROCK AND SOCK connection"....LOL!

Bishy saying Evolution are Lumberjacks....*SWOON*

Might as well skip the rest of this, because here's where the major marking comes in.

When Batista came out the first time, in my mind was a litany...."Look up here David, come on, look up here....look up here David..." etc. He didn't look of course. So..when he and Randy and Ric appeared at the top of the ramp...and he came out and raised his arms up I started shaking with ...I don't know what, I was having my normal Batista reaction I guess. They began to amble down the ramp, and I was sending him the message again. They got to the foot of the ramp, and he turned toward us. At this point, my eyes are locked on him. There was a chick in front of me with a sign that said "Evolution members" with an arrow pointing down...and then there was my sign a few rows behind. My sign had BATISTA in about 9-inch high hot pink letters (I didn't have a red marker, pink was the closest I could get)...under that it said in much smaller letters that I don't think he could see..."The Demon That Drives The King of The World"....which is a reference to the Raw-Jericho article from earlier this year that had the title "What Demons Drive the King of the World?"

Well...Batista looks our direction....looks up.....I swear to god he saw the sign....and he raised his arm and pointed....I literally froze at that moment. I didn't even breathe. Immediately I thought "He's pointing at the other sign"....but then I thought no wait.....HE'S POINTING AT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *___* So...that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And...he smiled when he looked away. My own Demon smile....*dead*

So..for the whole match I stared at his back....or his front when he came back around the ring.

/gushing part two.

After the cameras stopped...things got really WILD in the ring! Dude....it was a melee. Someone threw Batista out, and he laid on the floor....no...sprawled on the floor for the longest time. I could only see part of him, but it was a very suggestive pose. Then, HBK leaped out of the ring toward him and he stood. After that things went wild in the ring with the "faces" prevailing....HBK started yanking on Ric Flair's shirt...tore it to shreds. THEN...he tore Flair's pants clean off! He was wearing red panties underneath. Dude...he was bloodied, his hair was a wreck, pants-less, shirt ripped to shreds...and god help me he looked HOT! What was even better was by that time Batista had fallen out of the ring, and he was now lolling about on the ramp. SPRAWLED again....Randy tried and TRIED to get Batista to stand up...he was literally yanking on his hand...pulling on him, but Batista would not get up. Ric came to stand next to the two of them....
All in all it was a great show!

MY FIRST WWE LIVE SHOW!

January 4, 2003

Oh my god! We had SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Here's the rundown of our adventure.

We ended up leaving the house about 4:15 by the time we came back to get my jacket! LOL! We got there about 5. The entrance we drove in was the one that went right by the wrestler's entrance (thank god, or I'd have never seen it!) and Peter said the people already standing there cheered us. LOL! We parked, gathered our stuff and wandered over. We stood there by this bush, and watched people arrive. I had no idea what to expect, but what it was didn't even come close to anything I'd imagined. Basically, they drove up, had conversations with the Security, and then jetted down the ramp. Someone then drove their cars back up and parked them...right behind where we were standing. So...here's who we saw arrive....(Yes...I wrote them down! LOL!)

Victoria (she was so cute, and she WAVED at the crowd)
Lance Storm (I shrieked!)
Arn Anderson (in a Lincoln Navigator)
Rico
CHRIS JERICHO!
Ok...wait a minute while I totally SPAZZ out....mama mia he was beautiful. He had a woman in the car with him (I'm presuming it was his wife) and that caused a bit of a stir amongst the young girls standing next to me. *giggle* He was driving a white Buick (yes, I know it was a rental car, but...well....I took a picture of it after they parked it).
Molly Holly
Bubba Ray with Spike in the passenger seat
HHH (I marked big time..his hair was so beautiful)
RVD (he did the thumb thing for the crowd)
Trish
Test (and he may have had Stacy with him, not sure)

There were a lot of "some guy" type people that drove in too. One was one of the refs, but I have no idea which one.

Ok....so then they come and tell us we have to move away from the hedges and get in line. Cripes! We were in line for 30 minutes! Blargh! Once inside I immediately abandoned the idea of buying t-shirts but we did buy programs. (!!!!!) We decided to get sodas (no way I was paying $9 for a beer!) and while we were in line we looked through the program. I'm squeaking over the pictures, and Peter is getting very embarrassed) and then the people in front of me turn around and ask if Steiner is in there. So...I back up and look again...no Steiner....but ........................Sean O'Haire!


The people looked at me like I'd grown another head! It's the most beautiful picture you can imagine! And...it's a full half page! DUDE!!!!!

Ok....so, we find our seats. Good seats wouldn't quite cover it. AMAZING seats! It was row 9, but it was only 5 rows back! Random things...someone spotted Hulk Hogan sitting in our row. It was uncanny how much he looked like the Hulkster...but after intermission we found out it was a look-a-like. Peter made me take a picture of him. Heh.

Can I just say right now that Peter was amazing!? He put up with me, and he ended up making the whole thing really fun...and he had fun too...and he surprised the hell out of me during the main event.

Matches...

Hurricaine v Rico
Hurricaine won. Dawg..his tattoo is GREEN! Vivid green! I had no idea. The crowd HATED Rico. He got the biggest heat by far. It was a good match.

Spike v Steven Richards
Stevie won. During this match, Peter kept razzing me that Stevie's hair looks like Sean's. *giggle* It doesn't of course. Spike was amazing in this match. I love him.

Tommy Dreamer v Lance Storm
Lance won. *marks for Lance again* The crowd was behind Tommy, but they hated poor Lance. It was noted by the people around us that aside from Stevie, I was cheering for all the heels. LOL! Of course, I love Dreamer too...so that was a weird match. I was cheering for both of them!

Bubba Ray/D'von v D'Lo and Harvard
Tables match. Dudleyz won. Awesome match! Bubba Ray is incredible. They did the 3D...and they put Harvard through a table. Oh...there was interference too. I can't remember that part exactly, but at the end Spike was in the ring with them....

Booker T v Jericho w/Christian
No DQ. ...Book won...but give me a minute to completely SQUEAL AND MARK LIKE MAD over this match for a variety of reasons.

First...the security was so freaking cool you wouldn't believe it. Since we were on the floor, they let us get up and approach the barricade for pictures. I got some pretty close pictures of Jericho (I think) I was using a disposable camera, they'll probably come out like shit, but next time I'll know better. So I'm standing there and Christian hops in the ring first, and I literally squealed and bounced up and down. Then Jericho is so maginficently handsome and sexy and just....good lord. I could have died right at that moment. He was wearing the purple tights (which..hello? they kill me!) and...HE HAD HIS HAIR IN A BUN!!!! *___* And his skin is so smooth..and he was RIGHT THERE FOR GOD'S SAKE! I was shaking!

Secondly...Book was loosing the match pretty badly because it was basically 2 on 1. Well...Jericho pretty much had the match won...and....brace yourself....someone's music hit. Someone who hasn't been around in a while....

THE ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To say the place exploded would be an understatement...and Peter and I jumped up and danced in each others arms! Frickin' ROCK man...right there in front of us! Shirtless! Good LORD!!!!! It was the most beautiful thing. Peter was so stoked!!!!! Rock called Book back to the ring and made him do the Spinarooni. Then, Book made Rock do the Rockerooni! Priceless! That was definitley a highlight of the night.

Intermission.

Molly/Victoria v Trish/Jacqueline
Victoria is beautiful. I of course went up to the railing to see if she'd spy me in my OVW shirt. She did not of course. Molly is beautiful too. But dear lord in heaven...TRISH is so compeltely lovely it made me almost cry! I *think* I got a really great shot of her with her pyro. It was so so pretty. Victoria and Molly ended up getting the win because Richards interfered.

Test v Raven
With Stacy. She's cute. Raven....*thud*
Here's the rundown. Still braids, no makeup, black short tights. He looked fucking amazing. I got a rather crooked picture of him because I was so amazed by him. Test won because of Stacy I'm pretty sure. OH...but Raven kissed her! That was amusing. The crowd was really riding Raven hard..."Lose weight"...."Do some situps"..."You're fat"....ARGH!

Kane v Rosey with Rico
Kane is ENORMOUS! *____* I marked so much for him! Good lord! Oh..he won the match too. But I should mention right here that the guy sitting in front of me was enormous too. Batista huge. Pissed me off because he was right in front of me! Ugh! During this match I was squealing quietly to Peter about how amazing Kane was, and I said "God...he's HUGE"...to which monster-sized man turns around and says..."No he's not"...*blink* S'cuse me!? Kane won so we got the big pyro at the end. I took a picture.

OH! Forgot to mention...Jericho had the coolest pyro too!

Ok...next was the main event....the one where I screamed myself silly. The one...*____*

Steiner/RVD v HHH/Batista
Flair comes out to the ring first. Now, at this point I'm right at the barricade. One person in front of me. I nearly passed out in sheer awe of being that close to Ric Flair. It was weird...So, he's talking and I have no idea what he's saying because of the echo in there...but then he says a word I hear loud and clear....BATISTA

X____________X

He is so much more beautiful in person. Oh my. I stood there mute the entire time. No "Leviathan" chants, no "OVW" chants...no jockeying closer so he could see the shirt. Just....breathless. I almost grabbed on to the man standing next to me. He's big...but his skin....*dead* His eyes....*deader*...

Then HHH...and how much did I mark for the water spit? He threw the freakin' bottle right over my head! I got a picture of that too. All the rest of my pictures were taken of Batista though. RVD and Steiner came out...and I'm sure I was the only person in there that did this. Steiner is posing right in front of us...RIGHT THERE MAN...and here's me staring at Batista. With my mouth open.

The match was so incredible! Batista was AMAZING!!!!! No, it's not just the inside me talking...he was amazing. Everyone said it. He did the "unmovable object" thing on Steiner which went over really well. He manhandled Steiner which made me squeal like mad. HHH seemed injured so he wasn't in the ring much. Steiner does look a bit "weak" for lack of a better word. He was not able to lift Batista up very well. Hee! RVD was good too, but I honestly really only had eyes for Batista.

Oh..this one thing killed me so dead. They did all this posturing before they got in the ring. It was really quite funny. Making HHH out to be a coward or something. Everytime Batista got in the ring, Steiner would freak out. So...at one point....Batista's standing there right in front of HHH, and HHH reaches over and massages his shoulders. I DIED! Batista manhandled RVD quite a lot too...which made me shiver.

Behemoth man in front of me was pissing me off because I was marking like a mo-fo for Batista, and not in a quiet way, and he turned around and stared at me several times. But here's the funny part...PETER marked for Batista too! WHEE!

Match ended when Batista finally (and I was waiting for it) went for the Demon bomb on RVD, missed it, and RVD hit the five star frog splash on him instead.

RVD stayed in the ring forever, and we left since Batista had slithered out of the ring by that point.

@IAmJericho -- So, I'm reading your book

This is not the first time I've read A Lion's Tale, in fact it is the third time. I don't have the world's best memory so this time seems like the first time all over again.

At the end of one of the first chapters you talk about how in this day and age of the Internet wrestling fans are totally different. I wholeheartedly agree. I think at any typical wrestling show there's a good percentage of the audience that are so-called smart fans.

I guess I'm one of those fans too, with my subscription to The Wrestling Observer and PWInsiderElite.com.

But I didn't start out as a smart fan. Sure, I've only been watching wrestling since 2000, and the Internet was definitely around back in those days. But the thing is, I didn't look for wrestling news back when I first started watching it. I just let the shows unfold in front of me, and damnit I thought it was all real. I HAAAAAAAATED HHH. Hated him with the proverbial purple passion.

Even after I discovered that wrestling news ran rampant on the Internet I still immersed myself totally in storylines, and assumed they were all real.

There are still times now, after I have become the true informed wrestling fan, when I am totally able to suspend reality and dive in to a storyline completely. Your tremendous feud with Shawn Michaels is a prime example. Even though I was reading behind the scenes info, I truly believe that you and Michaels hated each other. Grrr.

I'm not a Diva...

Something that's been on my mind recently.

I'm a published novelist. My first novel was published last year in July. I achieved moderate sucess with it, and I put some money in my pocket. But, the bottom line is that I fulfilled a life long dream...being able to hold my own novel in my hand.

But...I'm not a diva. I don't need pandering. I don't go around crowing over my accomplishments because that's not the kind of person I am. I don't even really use the Twitter I set up for my pen name because I'm as ignored there as I am on my personal Twitter.

This has only been on my mind because I'm tired of the diva-like attitudes that most of the other authors in my "house" seem to have. Talk about liking to hear the sound of one's own voice!

In this day of insta-celebs, I'm just an average everyday person who puts her pants on one leg at a time and goes to work every day.

@wwe #WM26 Predictions -- edited to add results!

I'll start by mentioning my favorite Wrestlemania matches. I have two.

Most inspiring match: Triangle Ladder Match;;Edge-Christian-Hardyz-Dudlez;;WM16

Wrestlemania 16 is the first 'Mania I ever watched. I was just getting in to watching wrestling at the time. For some reason, this match really piqued my interest, and contributed to me becoming hopelessly hooked on all things WWF(E). The moment when Jeff Hardy swantonned off that incredibly high ladder clicked something into place for me.

Favorite match: World Heavyweight Championship;;HHH-Batista;;WM21

This is my favorite match for two reasons. First, and most importantly, I was there live. Wrestlemania live is something that every wrestling fan should experience at least once in their lives. Of course the other reason is that Batista is one of my all-time favorites. The build-up to this match was legendary, in my mind. Watching it unfold over several months, so cleverly executed, I was totally wrapped up in the ceremony of the match. And seeing Batista's genuine reaction in the ring. Wow. Unforgettable.

And now...on to my non-scientific predictions, such as they are. These are in the order I found them on WWE.com...I'm not going to begin to try to figure out which order they'll come up on the show. My predictions are in bold. I would also like to point out that I have not picked my favorite wrestler in each matchup, if I did that the predictions would look much different. Some of these guys I really can't stand...Randy Orton being one of them. While I don't understand the vehemence with which some people hate Batista...I also don't understand the vehemence with which some people LOVE Orton.

edited to add actual winners by underlining them

++The Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels

++Bret Hart vs Mr. McMahon

++WWE Champion Batista vs John Cena

++World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho vs Edge

++Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Kane
Kofi Kingston
Evan Bourne
MVP
Christian
Dolph Ziggler
Shelton Benjamin
Jack Swagger
Matt Hardy
Drew McIntyre

++Unified Tag Team Champion Big Show & The Miz vs John Morrison & R-Truth

++Triple H vs Sheamus

++Randy Orton vs Ted DiBiasse vs Cody Rhodes

++CM Punk vs Rey Mysterio

As for the 10 diva tag match...don't really care who wins that one, and hoping it won't end up on the actual PPV.

I was 6 for 9...not bad!

BATISTA

Have I mentioned I've been a Batista fan since before it was fashionable to be one? Yeah, for some reason I've liked the big guy from prior to day one. I don't know why, but I have. And through all this time I've watched people love him and hate him. I haven't wavered.

Super amusing to me that many of the people who are singing his praises as a fantastic heel, on par with Punk and Jericho so I've heard, were trashing him just a year ago. He's been called everything from "green" to "ass kisser" to "delicate".

I've found that a lot of people (read: women) seem to love "pretty" wrestlers, and Batista is not a pretty wrestler. Look at his arms for one thing...he has giant VEINS in them. Horror! People who like these pretty wrestlers never want people like Batista to get near their favorites.

Eh...I guess I'm just a wrestling fan. I started out totally caught up in the characters, and I still am...caught up in characters.

I love me some Batista. I love me some heels.

And on Sunday...I want my heels to win big. Batista, Jericho, Punk, and Sheamus.

Note to WWE: This is the best Wrestlemania since WM21.

My Smackdown 03/16/10 show

Warning, this post contains spoilers for tonight's Smackdown.


The tickets for this show went on sale long enough ago that it didn't occur to me that it would end up being right before Wrestlemania, and thus a good show. I did at the time briefly think it might be awesome because Batista and Jericho were on the same roster, but I really couldn't afford the tickets. Besides, by that time I knew Summer Slam was going to be in L.A. again this year, and decided I really wanted to go to that again, so skipping this show would be ok.

Then after they went on sale I got an email from Ticketmaster saying that they had some premium seats available. A friend urged me to check them out for the lulz. Ringside seats, the first row right around the ring, were offered for something like $800 or $850, kinda like the courtside seats for Lakers games. Heh. We LOL'd and moved on. After the Elimination Chamber I told myself, "Well, it's ok because Batista won't be there anyway since he's on Raw now."

About 2 weeks ago my friend asked me what I was doing on March 16. Tuesday night, so I say I'd be watching TV. She says wrong! I'm going to Smackdown. (!!!!!!!!!!!!) Without going into details the ringside seats had gone way down in price, less than half what they were originally. Still a lot of money, but in the end so worth it. In my experience nearly every seat at a wrestling event is good. We sat in nosebleed heaven for No Way Out once and they were pretty good seats considering. But nothing beats sitting ringside.

Traffic wasn't too bad, we got there and got parked really close (worth the extra $$) and there was a huge line. I remembered that when we went for Summer Slam we got in through some VIP entrance, so we walked around and there it was. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us in that way :( Walked a little further and got to another VIP line and were again turned away. Dude for real, ringside seats aren't VIP? Anyway, we finally got to the right door, and after the girl read my signs and had no idea what any of them meant she let us in. We high-tailed it right to our seats.

For once we had relatively cool seat partners (I guess since the seats were pretty pricey). The downside was that we had 2 father-son combinations on either side of us. Little kids. They weren't too annoying though. Also, the security was Nazi like. "Sit down! Don't touch that railing. Don't put your hands there. SIT DOWN!" And, the railing was super high. Like I don't remember it being that high the last time we were by the ring. But...they were fantastic seats.

First was a dark match...Jimmy Wang Yang (!!!!) and Slam Master J vs Tyler Reks and Lance Archer. TMZ needs to get a load of Archer's tats if they think Batista's are gay, just sayin'. It was a good match, and Jimmy was right in front of us, so that was cool.

Next was NXT. Whee! I'd really been hoping for a Christian sighting, but it was not to be. First was the tag match with Justin Gabriel and Matt Hardy vs. Darren Young and Punk. I want to mark for Matt Hardy, but turns out I really don't anymore. Their corner was right in front of us, I saw a lot of his back. I do like Gabriel though, so that was cool. Punk cracked me up because he kept examining the tag rope instead of trying to get in the match. Gallows and Serena weren't over by our side, but I watched them a lot too. I felt like the match went on too long, but that's simply because I was waiting for either a Jericho or a Christian...or Bryan Danielson. ^^

Next up was Daniel Bryan vs Khali. I kept my sign up the whole time, Bryan looked over my way and I was sure he saw it but he didn't acknowledge it. I had visions in my head of the time we sat ringside at Staples for SD the other time, and Brian Kendrick acknowledged my Spanky sign. This was an ok match, I'd have loved to have seen Bryan Danielson in a real match, but it was cool to see him so close. And then we got a Big Show (GINORMOUS IN PERSON!) run in.
Turns out Bryan did see my sign, and awesomely, he tweeted @me. Ha! I saw your sign! Fantastic! @hardknox32 @DanielBryanNXT It was great seeing you at NXT last night! http://twitpic.com/1956v4

Christian's music hit and I fangirled! Only to find it was Heath Slater by himself and his opponent was Mr. 1.9 seconds. Ho hum.

And then....Jericho's first appearance of the night! OMG. Of course he went up the steps right in front of where we were sitting. Never glanced our way once, and I purposely didn't take pictures because I just wanted to watch him. During the match he was over by the announce table, not close to us...but I can't wait to watch the show to hear what he was saying.
[I have since watched the show, and when I set up the DVR I didn’t remember to make it a manual recording, so as soon as Jericho was exiting the ring…the recording stopped. WAH! Searched online and found the match…and I just have to say “DO YOUR JOB!!” killed me.]

Next was the Superstars match. Ho hum. I saw them set up Kane's pyro so I knew he was coming out. Then when it was Shelton I was a little more interested. The weird part about the match is that there were some botched spots that they just re-did right there in the ring like they knew they could edit it later. Kane’s  top rope totally missed Shelton when he landed, next thing I know he's up there doing it again. That friggin' pyro is LOUD!

We saw a ton of WWE video packages. I didn't watch most of them, but I did watch one that was all the charitable things they do, it was kind of nice. Since SD isn't broadcast live there weren't that many of them during "commercial breaks"....at one point they did the "show us your sign" thing. :) I had a sign that said "I'm the best in the world at what I do" meaning to use it to mock Jericho. You know like if he looked at me with it I'd be pointing at myself saying "No Chris *I* am the best, not you!" LOL! So anyway, the cameraman comes over to me, the camera mere inches from my sign, and then he pushes it down and kinda back against me...so everyone got the idea that it was me, not Jericho who was the best. LOL! The guys behind us (who were kinda cool) told my friend she should have taken a picture of me. So I said "Was that on screen?" Duh Carol, that was the whole idea...:) I *think* there was a pretty big reaction to the sign.

So, the rest of the show.

Rey came out first to tell us stuff about last week. I only half listened. SES came out to challenge him to a match. Because I really only watch SES for the sex aspect of them (IE: they're always all touching each other), and I can take or leave Rey I didn't really pay strict attention to this exchange. Too busy watching the camera people...who are fascinating to watch.

Next was a match to hype the Money in the Bank match. MVP and Hardy vs Swagger and Ziggler. It was an ok match I presume, and I can't really remember who won. During this match I was staring at the back of MVP thinking geez, these guys are really beat up. I felt kind of bad for him in particular. At the end Ziggler got out a big ladder....it didn't bode well for the MITB match because he had trouble getting it out, trouble getting it into the ring, and trouble setting it up. He climbed up and immediately the ref came over and held the ladder.

That's another thing, I didn't see Charles Robinson which made me sad.

Next was the divas match. I don't like Michelle McCool. I do like Layla...and their entrance would have been pretty cool if we'd been on the other side of the ring. I guess this will sound like I'm a catty girl, but Layla has a big rear end....much bigger than the rest of her body. McCool is just a stick figure. In fact it was funny, the rowdy yet cool guys behind us seemed to think Layla's big booty was far more attractive than McCool in general. I wish WWE would get that message, seems like men in general want women with meat on their bones. They also liked Tiffany (and/or Beth). I got some pretty awesome pictures of Beth. I was laughing at these guys behind us because one of them kept saying "David, get pictures, David..PICTURES!" Vickie came out and I unfortunately didn't get any good pictures of her, but she was beautiful. Way smaller in person than she is on screen.

Next...THE CUTTING EDGE! Whee! Edge came out first, and we were treated to his strobe lights forever while they showed a video package. I was hoping there were no epileptics in the audience. Finally....break the walls down!!!!!!!!!!!! GUH!!! He looked every bit as suave as he did the first time and again he did not look my way. More on that later.

At first Wade Barrett was standing behind Jericho with his hands on his hips thus spreading the coat so that I couldn't see Jericho. Also, I have to admit I wasn't really listening to what they said to each other because I was too fascinated watching Chris. When everything broke down I nearly died. I will never get tired of watching Jericho strip out of his clothes like that. *wiggle* My pictures say it all...it was amazing times a million. I am actually stunned the picture of him coming out of the ring (down the stairs right in front of us!!!) turned out so well.

The Hart Dynasty came out next, and I spent their whole ring entrance trying to get Nattie to see my sign. She either didn't see it or didn't care to respond to it, I'm not sure which...but dear lord she's BEAUTIFUL. We thought their match would be vs Cryme Tyme...but it turned out to be John Morrison and R Truth. WHEE! Morrison is so gorgeous in person, and I touched his hand! *dies* Then we got too sing "what's up!!" with Truth. 'Twas all just awesome! Good match too, and again I'm not sure who won but I think it was Truth/Morrison.

Ok...next was the big long Rey vs Gallows segment. My goal during this was to watch Punk and Serena. Fascinating. They are pretty beautiful together...and I've never seen her that worked up. It was so fascinating that I really didn't watch any of the match (aside from that one picture I got...and that's a pretty awesome picture I think). I know Rey won the match, and I know that if Gallows had won there was some kind of promise about Rey joining the SES.

Next, the main event for the show. There was a time when the Undertaker made me weak, so seeing his entrance live...right in front of me...was cool and nostalgic. He moves so slow it was easy to get some decent pictures of him. And Drew....gah! He's so beautiful! It was a short match, which was ok...and then there was the Taker/Michaels thing. I couldn't see any of that in person because I wasn’t near the stage, so I was watching it on the screen...until I turned and saw Drew sprawled on the floor by the ring. OH. MY. GOD. *thud*

Then came the dark main event. I'd heard from someone on Twitter that first of all John Cena would be addressing all the rookies in the ring to start NXT. That didn't happen obviously. She also said there would be this dark main event...and by the time it was going to start I was afraid she was wrong about that too...but SO NOT WRONG!!!! There were 2 things that made this show awesome, well no 3. The DBMM sign getting noticed, the "show us your sign" segment...and this dark main event.

Heels: Jericho, Sheamus, Punk, and Batista vs Faces: Rey, Edge, HHH, and Cena.

Wow.

Jericho came out first. All shiny and oh-so-beautiful in his humongous belt. Then Sheamus, right in front of us. Then Punk with his posse (all still touching each other)...and then Batista. I stopped breathing. Batista was strooooooolllllllliiiiinnnnggg down the ramp. I decided to look back to see if Chris was watching him because you know, inquiring minds want to know. Dear lord. He was watching all right. He was giving Batista the sign, you're not going fast enough. He tapped his wrist like he was wearing a watch. Batista gave him the “I’m flipping you off in my head” look.

Then the faces came out, and aside from snapping that mega-close-up-thudworthy picture of Edge and taking a bit of time to watch HHH I ignored them completely, because I love me some heels. Batista literally paced the floor like a caged animal. I was fascinated.

I have no idea what really happened in the match, but here's what *I* saw. Jericho and Batista standing in their corner (opposite from us so we could see their faces not their asses) talking to each other. Jericho trash talking HHH. Batista manhandling Cena. And the faces won.

After the match was over Jericho parked himself in front of these people he knew, opposite of us. This is when I came to terms with the fact that Jericho doesn't “know” me anymore. Like, if I talked to him he might remember, and if I reminded him he *would* remember...but he's not that person anymore. All those cool "hey you guys" and "I know you" and "How was your Christmas" and XM Radio rants...those were all Jericho away from WWE times. Now I'm just a fan. And truly...I'm ok with that. Like I came to the realization that my "15 minutes" with Chris Jericho is over, but it doesn't change the fact that I had those 15 minutes.

Because the heels lost all of them, with the exception of a chatty-with-friends Jericho slithered off holding their collective heads.

The faces all celebrated, and I pretty much slapped hands with all of them. Edge and Rey for sure...I'm pretty sure HHH and maybe Cena. Rey gave some towel, or shirt, or something to a kid right beside us. That was cool. It was cool touching hands with the faces even though I didn't like any of them.

Oh speaking of which...I also touched hands with R Truth....slippery sweaty oily hand. :O

We got twisted around coming home. There was road construction and lanes opened and closed randomly...and I was DEAD tired because I'd woken up that morning at 4am with an earthquake.

As we were turning on to my street, one block away from my house, my phone rings. It's 11:30 now....my son is calling me. Are you coming home soon? LOL! He actually waited on the porch for me! Talk about role reversal.

Autographs and Work Schedules

Guess what? I work very close to Montebello. It's probably no more than 15 minutes from where I'm sitting right now. In fact, when I read about the Fozzy signing there scheduled for March 15 I thought...I'm so there!

Then I read the fine print. No cameras.

WHAT????

No offense to Chris Jericho, but I don't want his autograph. And I don't need his autograph on Chasing the Grail because I ordered it from Newbury Comics specifically to get an autographed copy. I have so many Chris Jericho autographs that I've lost count, but the one that means the most to me is the one inside A Lion's Tale, because it's a personal autograph that I got as I sat there so speechless I couldn't even babble. It's a heady thing to hear Chris Jericho say, "I know you."

But, one can never have too many pictures, so once I read that no cameras were allowed I had second thoughts on my plan.

Then today I found out they moved the signing to Tuesday. WHY??? Even though Montebello is 15 minutes away, Tuesday is staff meeting day. Ordinarily I'd be getting out of work *at* 3pm, but on Tuesday it's more like 4pm. Let's be realistic. Even though Montebello is pretty much an "armpit" it is L.A. adjacent...the lines would be out the door before I got there.

Don't worry though, the story has a happy ending. That night I go to see SD at the Staples Center.

In ringside seats.

So...pictures galore.

And maybe if I'm lucky, I'll get my "I know you." Although chances are I won't, since Chris is a heel now.

WATCH ME SHINE!

It has been a really long time since I've fallen completely in love with a CD. There was a time, and I won't date myself by giving a time frame other than to say it used to be records not CDs, when music was my whole entire life. I spent more time obsessing over music and musicians than I did over anything else. I frequently got new music that totally enthralled me. Back in those days I listened with headphones in my room.

Eventually I entered the modern age...ie: cassette tapes in my car. Wow, what an experience that was -- belting out songs at the top of my lungs while the music blasted.

And then I grew up and while I still had music I liked, I had more pressing things to worry about. Like bills, and kids, and all that good stuff that comes along with being an adult.

But now I've bonded once again with a CD (no vinyl this time)...and I can NOT get enough of it. In fact today I passed a threshold I haven't in years....I wailed away with this CD, and I didn't even care that the windows were open and I was at a stoplight.

Chasing the Grail by FOZZY rocks.

I like the whole CD, but it's the song "Watch Me Shine" that is my undoing. It's kind of too bad that Chris Jericho and I don't sing in the same key (although, he actually sings, I wail) because we had a perfect duet going on today. My voice is much better matched to Sully Erna's, I can keep up with him (thank God there's a new Godsmack CD on the horizon). But wrong key or not I am IN LOVE WITH THIS SONG!

And...that's it. Nothing further than the effervescence of wanting to share this incredible experience.

Oh...and if I were so inclined..."God Pounds His Nails" would make me play air-guitar. I even squeezed off one stoplight arm swing. /geek

Wrestling

I've only been watching wrestling for about ten years, but wrestling is in my blood. Back in the day my great grandfather lost his farm to wrestling swindlers. The wrestler they were promoting was called the "Greek Demon". I swear, you can't make this stuff up.

The reasons why I watch wrestling are still the stuff of legend. I was a casual watcher in the early '80s when Piper and Hogan were feuding, and Mean Gene Okerlund was interviewing them, but they didn't make me want to watch full time.

Supposedly the real reason I watched wrestling in the first place was because my students talked about The Rock. However, during that time in earlly 2000, The Rock was feuding with some blonde guy named Chris Jericho, and damn. Jericho had it all, magic in the ring, he made me laugh and get angry, and he was easy on the eyes. :p It was Wrestlemania 16 when I became hoplessly hooked on committing to full time watching wrestling, due largely to Jeff Hardy's swanton off that ginormous ladder. So the legend is that I watch wrestling because of The Rock, Chris Jericho, and Jeff Hardy. But I now conveniently say ...it's all Chris Jericho's fault.

Last time I talked about n00bs, so I'll mention now that I am definitely NOT a n00b Batista fan. I discovered him because GDYWWE you sent Sean O'Haire to OVW. So because I still needed my NBT fix I hunted the www and found that OVW had a website, and oh by the way they also offerred tapes for sale. In February 2002 I finally got my first OVW tape, and eagerly put it in to watch the O'Haire love. But a funny thing happened. First there was Shelton Benjamin, then some MAMMOTH MONSTER named Leviathan, and then good old wild-eyed O'Haire with some dude named the Prototype in tow.

Sure, I still loved me some O'Haire, but as I watched more of the tape it was that Leviathan character that really caught me. In May of that year he debuted with Smackdown, under the name "David Bautista"...eventually morphing into Deacon Batista, and then simply Batista (as his official site quipped, WWE got the "u" out). So while I got on Jericho's train late (it had already left the station 6 months before I was hooked on him...thus I was a n00b) I've been on Batista's train since before it even got to the station.

 

And that is why that (see above) still makes me happy.

First!

Sometimes I find the Twitter limit frustrating. Or is Twitter just really a worldwide messenger service that anyone anywhere can use? I prefer to think of it as a way to express myself, but the limit gets in my way. Because, I typically have a lot to say, at least from behind my anonymous computer screen.

Today's topic is n00bs.

The first (and only) time I saw Fozzy play live was in 2003. Because there was no Twitter back in those days I missed their first West Coast concert. Believe me I was upset about that. But, in 2003 afer the debacle that was Lita and Kane get married at a WWE event, that first Fozzy gig was the magical balm that made the whole night ok. Jericho came down into the crowd, and I touched his shoulder. Guh.

The next day I went on the message board at FozzyRock to gush with the others who attended the show about how great it was. Imagine my shock at being labled a "n00b"...Huh? Haven't I been a Fozzy fan from the day their first CD came out? Hadn't I been on that board since the early days? All of a sudden -now- I'm a n00b because this was the first time I'd seen them play live? What the froot?

So yeah...now there's a whole slew of n00b Fozzy fans, and us old-timers get to point fingers at them. But really...isn't it Fozzy's goal to have millions and millions of fans anyway?

My two cents.